Writing Tip

Don't Plagiarize the Material of Others

Difficulty Level: Basic

Recommendation: Don’t plagiarize content from the Internet.

What Is Plagiarism?

The Internet sure is seductive when an author is searching for information. That report is a hard deliverable due next week. Like the pull of a great magnet, sites like Wikipedia draw the struggling writer. And there are smaller pools of information, like blogs dedicated to highly specialized subjects. Most of this information may be free to the eyes, but not to the hands. Freely using words that are not of your making and presenting them as your own is a form of wrongful taking called plagiarism, which, in a nutshell, is the misrepresentation or originality. Here’s a simple definition from dictionary.com:

An act or instance of using or closely imitating the language and thoughts of another author without authorization and the representation of that author's work as one’s own, as by not crediting the original author.

Don’t confuse “plagiarism” with “influence” or “inspiration.” Copy-paste, copy-paste, copy-paste is not inspiration. And plagiarism is not limited to your stealing text and inserting it verbatim into your report. Just passing off someone else’s original idea as your own is plagiarism, no matter how you transform the language (paraphrase). You are probably saying, “We know this already,” and you probably do know this concept. But today, because information penned by others is so handy AND because there are tools now available to detect the level of plagiarism in technical reports, I encourage authors to be more vigilant than ever.

“If you steal from me, you're stealing twice.”


--WYSP jock Don Geronimo

iThenticate

Many companies now use an online tool called iThenticate (http://www.ithenticate.com/). When an editor with an iThenticate account uploads a report, he receives a report within a few minutes, and this report is detailed and thorough. It tells the submitter not only HOW much content was lifted from external sources but WHERE it was lifted from. It is solid evidence of plagiarism, and it’s a game-changer for desperate writers.

All of this hand-waving doesn’t mean you should shun the Internet. You just have to be knowledgeable about handling third-party content. Here are a few tips for using Internet content while avoiding plagiarism:

  • Turn your discretion knob to the max. If you already know what you’re reading on the Internet, then manufacture the words yourself. This goes all the way down to turns of phrases. After all, if you invent a cool way of saying something, wouldn’t you be miffed at someone who used it without attribution?
  • Don’t lift large volumes of text, even if you credit the author. Instead, you can paraphrase what the author is saying, but you still need to cite the source. Follow the Chicago Manual of Style on citing material.
  • Send readers to a Web site. If you want the reader to understand a concept, but you have found an online article whose author’s knowledge is superior to yours, then simply point the reader to that site, such as: For more information about IGBT manufacturing, please visit http://www.fairchildsemi.com/products/discretes/igbts/.
  • Remember that every original composition is copyrighted upon creation. You don’t need to display the copyright symbol, and you don’t need to register your creation with the Library of Congress to legitimize your work. Therefore, cite, cite, cite. Wherever you get your content, attribute the source. However, you don’t need to cite common knowledge. We all know that the earth orbits the sun. You don’t need to cite me when you use that factoid at your next cocktail party.
  • Finally, don’t confuse plagiarism with infringements of copyright and intellectual property. You can commit plagiarism without violating copyright (such as when you paraphrase someone’s original idea), and you can copy text verbatim without violating copyright or committing plagiarism (as long as you cite the source and don’t copy a large volume). (By the way, detectors like iThenticate detect only verbatim matches, so if you properly cite the quoted text, you will get dinged with a false positive.). Also, infringement of intellectual property may entail plagiarism or may not (for example, if you reveal secret knowledge using your own words, then you may violate intellectual property but not commit plagiarism if you make it clear that the idea is not your own—misrepresentation of originality is the only criterion for plagiarism).

Self-Plagiarism

Sometimes, self-plagiarism is tolerated (let us call it “recycling,” “reusing,” or “repurposing” to distance ourselves from the oxymoron). For example, let’s say that you crafted a highly detailed report two years ago, and today you have an assignment that overlaps the content of that report. “Stealing” from the first report to populate the second report is logical, as long as the two reports have a corporate author, but still not as worthy as fresh wording. And chunks of text, called boilerplates, can be used over and over again whether in whole or in part, and whether verbatim or paraphrased. However, recycling in the context of a paper published in a peer-review journal or a notable trade magazine is always frowned upon.

Also, if you write a report for Acme Valley Utilities, and Acme publishes the report, you cannot lay claim to those words, even though you feel some sense of ownership of them. Acme now owns that composition and holds the copyright.